I watched a Justice League movie while I was home sick yesterday. Can't remember if it was called Crisis on Two Earths or Crisis on Alternate Earths. Whichever, I want to hurt the person who forced Andrea Romano to cast a lesser Baldwin brother as Superman. I know it's not her fault because in the trailer for Batman/Superman Public Enemies she said she practically begged them to be able to cast Kevin Conroy and Tim Daly so obviously people usually make her cast inferior actors instead.

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"freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order."
- Justice Robert Jackson, West Virginia State Board of Ed. v. Barnette

Well, it's over. Batman the Brave and the Bold series finale was last night. I can count on one hand the number of episodes I've seen so I don't feel I'm in a good position to judge the whole series. I don't remember the first one I saw, but it was early in the run.

Aquaman was a guest hero that episode and I hated what they did to him. Now, Aquaman gets a lot of crap for being a lame hero. Bruce Timm did some awesoming in the JLU, but then I never had the grudge against the King of the Sea some folks did. But initially it felt like a giant step backwards to make Aquaman a gigantic, extra strong idiot. It was like he became the Tick, but without all of that self awareness. But you know what? Subsequent appearances turned me around on him a bit. I mean, I still question the big strong moron part, but the bombast and over the top action/reaction really worked for this series.

I mostly forgot about it for most of its run. But I picked up an episode or two here right at the end. And you know something else? Turns out I think this show was a positive addition to the Batman works. The animation was top notch. The voice acting was great, with some fantastic casting. And watching the finale, I felt a little sad that it was going away. Most likely because I've seen preview concept art for what's coming next.

My thoughts on Aquaman in general are pretty positive. I mean, despite being the only real example of an old DC character who was a ripoff of a Marvel (Timely) character, he actually more interesting to me than the Sub-Mariner, since his default personality isn't jerk. His classic villains are pretty cool and different. I never got into the hook handed version because I burnt out on the Dark Age anti-hero pretty much as soon as the concept started.

The problem with the Super Friends incarnation was that he was included for being one of DCs most prominent heroes, I suppose. He doesn't work on a team of course unless that team is underwater or aquatic in nature. He also suffered greatly from the studios inability to depict actual fighting. His super strength was mostly useless with superman around and so the writers had to shoehorn ways to have him control animals. He did however have a cool iconic sound effect.

I've watched the first season of Brave and the Bold. I sort of got the impression that there was more to Aquaman mentally than he let on. He acts that way because he enjoys it but isn't completely clueless. That's just my impression and I can't remember anything specific to support it.

__________________Much of MADNESS, and more of SIN, and HORROR the soul of the plot.

My thoughts on Aquaman in general are pretty positive. I mean, despite being the only real example of an old DC character who was a ripoff of a Marvel (Timely) character, he actually more interesting to me than the Sub-Mariner, since his default personality isn't jerk.

I've always had a soft spot for Aquaman. In the comics, at least, he's generally portrayed as a more than competent hero. On land, he's generally portrayed as being at least as strong as Wonder Woman, and every bit as good at hand-to-hand combat. (And Wonder Woman actually survived a fight with an enraged, mind-controlled Superman.) In the water, only characters like Superman or the Martian Manhunter can come close to being his equals.

He has also been established as one of the most powerful telepaths on the planet. There was one encounter between him and an evil Speedster. (I forget the villain's name.) The Bad Guy basically said, "I'm way too fast for you; you don't stand a chance."

Aquaman replied something along the lines of: "People typically misunderstand how my powers work; they think that all I can do is talk to fish. Actually, I can tap into and control the minds of fish -- or any animal descended from fish. That includes you. For instance, I just shut down the motor center of your brain."

Beatdown ensues.

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“The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.”

On the flip side, writers often ignore a character's well-established abilities, just to make the situation seem more threatening. Like the character in question would somehow forget that (s)he can easily deal with this sort of situation.

In the Marvel Universe, Thor is probably the biggest victim of this. Thor has been shown to be so powerful that he can literally shatter a moon with one blow of Mjolnir; he has been shown to be capable of absorbing virtually limitless amounts of energy projected at him (including absorbing all the force of nuclear explosions without breaking a sweat); he has been shown to be so tough that he can stand at ground zero of a nuclear blast and not even get his hair mussed. And as the God of Thunder, he has been depicted as having complete control over the electromagnetic force, one of the four fundamental forces of nature. (In an encounter with Magneto, Magneto bragged that he was one of the most powerful beings in existence, and could beat even a god. Thor calmly pointed out that as the God of Thunder -- and lightning -- he didn't manipulate electromagnetic fields, he controlled them. And so he simply shut down Magneto's abilities.)

In short, when the writers remember his established abilities, Thor should only be challenged by Cosmic-level entities. But for some reason, mere Earthly villains sometimes give him a real run for the money. The writers sometimes hand-wave this by having Thor claim that he only ever uses a small fraction of his true power when on Earth, because if he ever used his full power, he could literally devastate the Earth. Still, it seems like a real cop-out.

Probably the biggest DC Universe victim of this is the Flash. Honestly, given his established abilities, if he were written at all "realistically," not even Superman would stand a snowball's chance in Hell against him. Indeed, it was actually a plot point in a couple of Justice League episodes that if Flash ever came close to using his abilities to their full potential, he'd be essentially unstoppable.

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“The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.”

Actually, the Silver Age Superman could do pretty much anything that the Flash could do, and then some.

Anyway, I don't really read modern comics but the expanded telepathy thing for Aquaman seemed like an ass pull when I read about it. If they want to make the character cool, good writing, good characters and a consistent plotline would be the best ways to start, not reinventing him every so often. Come to think of it, that's why the first sentence in this paragraph is true...

__________________Much of MADNESS, and more of SIN, and HORROR the soul of the plot.

Alot (sic) of people are complaining about not being able to understand Bane in the recent trailer for the next Batman movie. I didn't have much of a problem myself but I can understand why other people might. Fortunately for everyone, however, it seems Bane has taken to the written word to get his message of despair to the masses.

Though I don't think it's as effective as he might wish.

Also in comic industry related news: I am not a fan of the Doctor Who spin off Torchwood. I just didn't like it. But there's no denying that John Barrowman is pretty damn awesome. He does play a very convincing charming rapscallion. I think it's his shiny teeth.

Probably the biggest DC Universe victim of this is the Flash. Honestly, given his established abilities, if he were written at all "realistically," not even Superman would stand a snowball's chance in Hell against him. Indeed, it was actually a plot point in a couple of Justice League episodes that if Flash ever came close to using his abilities to their full potential, he'd be essentially unstoppable.

Yet Steve Jobs defeated him.

--J.D.

One of the reasons I could not get into Marvel. "Wandering Gods" meeting other "Wandering Gods." Oh and "conflict!"